It's that time of the year where trade rumors are casually lobbed about like water balloons. It can be really fun, maddening, or down right crazy. But if you're a fan of the Dallas Mavericks, like we are, more often than not it's incredibly boring. Do we care, though?

I ask because while I've been following the Mavericks forever, I never really gave trade season a ton of thought until the Delonte West situation happened during pre-season. Think back to that... what do we know? We know that Delonte caused some problems after a game and was suspended. We know that he was re-instated, but then caused more problems during a practice and it was decided by management and the coaching staff that West and the Mavericks should part ways. If this was a story about the Lakers or Knicks, we would know who said what to whom, why something was said, and what exactly was being done. Being a Mavs fan with gossip often feels like reading a redacted report from the US government.

Bringing this back to trades... it's a little frustrating. I'd like to know if anything were on the horizon. After all, I angered a lot of you with my TANK! idea and it would be nice to know if the team was considering shaking up the roster a bit as they try to make one last push. Obviously we here all the cliched nonsense like "the Bank of Cuban is open" and all of the broad commentary from our great owner. But beyond that, nothing. Not even a whisper. I could be wrong with my history, but it feels as if the last time we knew something was going to happen with the Mavericks before it actually did was the initial failed Devin Harris-Jason Kidd trade, when Devean George threw a wrench in the trade by refusing to waive his Bird Rights.

I mean, check out this cool graphical representation of who is available from which teams at Hoops Hype. The mother ship (SB Nation Basketball) even has a hive of all the possible trade options being discussed.